DISCOVERY OF TEE MAMMOTH. 



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the Government in a survey of the coast of the mouth of the Lena and Indighirka, was despatched up 

 the latter stream, in 1846, in command of a small iron steam-cutter. He writes the following account, 

 which we translate, to a friend in Germany : 



" In 1846 there was uncommon warm weather in the north of Siberia. Already in May xinusual 

 rains poured over the moors and bogs, storms shook the earth, and the streams carried not only ice to 

 the sea, but also large tracts of land, thawed by the masses of warm water fed by the southern rains. 

 . We steamed on the first favourable day up the Indighirka ; but there were no thoughts 

 of land. We saw around us only a sea of dirty brown water, and knew the river only by the 

 rushing and roaring of the stream. The river rolled against us trees, moss, and large masses of 

 peat, so that it was only with great trouble and danger we could proceed. At the end of the second 

 day, we were only about forty versts [one verst = 1,166 yards English] up the stream. Some one 

 had to stand with the sounding-rod in hand continually, and the boat received so many shocks 

 that it shuddered to the keel. A wooden vessel would have been smashed. Around us we saw 

 nothing but the flooded land. For eight days we met with the like hindrances, until at last we 

 i-eached the place where our Yakuts were to have met us. Farther up was a place called Ujan- 

 dina, whence the people were to have come to us, but they were not there, prevented evidently 

 by the floods. As we had been here in former years we knew the place. But how it had changed ! 

 The Indighirka, here about three versts wide, had torn up the land and worn itself a fresh channel, 

 and when the waters sank we saw to our astonishment that the old river-bed had become merely 

 that of an insignificant stream. This allowed me to cut through the soft earth, and we went recon- 

 noitring up the new stream which had worn its way westwards. Afterwards we landed on the 

 new shore, and surveyed the undermining and destructive operation of the wild waters, that carried 

 away with extraordinary rapidity masses of soft peat and loam. It was then that we made a wonder- 

 ful discovery. The land on which we were treading was moorland, covered thickly with young 

 plants. Many lovely flowers rejoiced the eye in the warm beams of the sun, that shone for 

 twenty-two out of the twenty-four hours. The stream rolled over and tore up the soft wet ground 

 like chaff, so that it was dangerous to go near the brink. While we were all quiet, we suddenly 

 heard under our feet a sudden gurgling and stirring, which betrayed the working of the disturbed 

 water. Suddenly our jager [hunter], ever on the look-out, called loudly, and pointed to a singular 

 and unshapely object, which rose and sank through the disturbed waters. I had already remarked 

 it, but not given it my attention, considering it only drift wood. Now we all hastened to the spot on 

 the shore, had the boat drawn near, and waited until the mysterious thing should again show itself. 

 Our patience was tried, but at last, a black, horrible, giant-like mass was thrust out of the water, and 

 we beheld a colossal Elephant's head, armed with mighty tusks, with its long trunk moving in the 

 water, in an unearthly manner, as though seeking for something lost therein. Breathless with 

 astonishment, I beheld the monster hardly twelve feet from me, with his half-open eyes yet showing 

 the whites. It was still in good preservation. 



" 'A Mammoth! a Mammoth!' broke out the Tschermomori, and I shouted 'Here quickly ! chains 

 and ropes ! ' I will pass over our preparations for securing the giant animal, whose body the water was 

 trying to bear from us. As the animal again sank we waited for an opportunity to throw the ropes 

 over his neck. This was only accomplished after many efforts. For the rest we had no cause for 

 anxiety, for after examining the ground I satisfied myself that the hind legs of the Mammoth still 

 stuck in the earth, and that the water would work for us to unloosen them. We therefore fastened a 

 rope round his neck, threw a chain round his tusks, that were eight feet long, drove a stake into the 

 ground about twenty feet from the shore, and made chain and rope fast to it. The day went by 

 quicker than I thought for, but still the time seemed long before the animal was secured, as it was 

 only after the lapse of twenty-four hours that the waters had loosened it. But the position of the 

 animal was interesting to me ; it was standing in the earth, and not lying on its side or back as a dead 

 animal naturally would, indicating by this the manner of its destruction. The soft peat or marsh land 

 on which he stepped thousands of years ago gave way by the weight of the giant, and he sank as he 

 stood on it feet foremost, incapable of saving himself, and a severe frost came and turned him into ice, 

 as well as the moor which had buried him ; the latter, however, grew and flourished, every summer 

 renewing itself; possibly the neighbouring stream had heaped plants and sand over the dead body. 

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